Wednesday, September 26, 2007

"Could it really be happening? Was there really any way in hell a straight white male BushCo-era Republican would dare step up to a live microphone in front of a TV camera in a major American city and honestly admit that, well, he was wrong, and he is very sorry, and he has now officially reversed his position and now fully supports gay marriage and will actually sign a city council resolution acknowledging and advocating same?"

SNIP

"But there is another fascinating element to this story. There is one more thing to ponder. Is it not curious that, on the rare instances such a personal breakthrough occurs in a pubic political figure, it's most often in the favor of a progressive idea, a humanistic switch away from cultural conservatism?

That is to say, is it not interesting that you almost never hear a Democrat or a liberal step up to a microphone and choke back tears and say, "My people, I have been all wrong about, say, the death penalty (or gun control, or women's rights), and after searching my heart and following my intuition and seeking inspiration from my loving family, I now have reversed my position. I wish to wholly support killing prisoners. What's more, I now support torture, and will vote for the unprovoked bombing of Iran and I just signed a decree that everyone must get a large handgun and by the way it turns out sex really is deeply scary and we cannot let women have such control over their bodies and therefore I no longer support condoms or RU-486 or low-rise jeans in public. Thank you."

Truly, Sanders seems to follow a wondrous, though not often noticed, law of humanistic expansion. It goes something like this: When you find your heart, when you look to your own family and your own life and your own soul for the answers and go beyond the limitations of your political handbook and disregard the bitter decrees force-fed to you by some dogmatic religion or belief system, well, chances are just incredibly good you will emerge a tiny bit more progressive or liberal or open-minded than before. Is that not fascinating?"

SNIP

"But it's more than that. The speech actually expresses one of the most precious and endangered ideas in all of American society: that human beings, their views and their beliefs and their notions of love and sex and what it means to be alive on this weird blue dot, these things can actually evolve, beliefs can shift, the heart can open, and no matter where you live and who you are and what you do for a living, it's never too late to let love in."